The need for United Nations’ action on international legal steps to prevent crimes against humanity was stressed today by the World Jewish Congress in a 29-page memorandum submitted to the United Nations Legal Committee.
For a long time, the World Jewish Congress pointed out, the General Assembly has postponed consideration of both a draft Code of Offenses Against the Peace and Security of Mankind and of proposals for the establishment of an international criminal court.
“Meanwhile,” the WJC stated, “crimes against humanity continue to be committed in some places, and although they are not being committed on such a grand scale and not with Nazi cruelty, they nevertheless endanger the life and freedom of their victims,” Among these crimes the WJC lists “forced deportations of ‘unwanted’ groups of population, confinement of opponents in prisons and concentration camps, persecutions on racial and religious grounds, confiscation of property of so-called ‘enemy elements,’ deprivation of the means of existence, forced labor.”
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